Tolerance cannot be measured in terms of degrees of intolerance. I am essentially opposed to burning books even when they incite others to violence. But freedom is either an absolute or it is conditioned on not inciting others to violence. Anything else is rationalized bigotry.

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Friday, July 12, 2013

Abolish the Chief Rabbinate or Reform it

Throughout Jewish history there has been constant theological dissent. The joke of two Jews, three opinions is no joke.It is paradoxically, the source of our
greatest creativity and of our fragmentation and discord.The foundation of the power that missionary
faiths possess has always been their ability to rally the troops around a central
banner; to speak with a single commanding voice.And to annihilate any opposition so that
there was one narrative only, to present to outsiders.While this hegemonic characteristic
successfully built nations and empires it also became the source for wars of
terrible ferocity, and always, the instrument for exploitation and persecution
of dissident opinion and sects.

Religious Jewish unity, if it exists, exists
only in myth.The special advisers to
various plenipotentiaries were created for one purpose, and that was to
represent the Jewish community before the king or emperor.

During the British Mandate of Palestine the
High Commissioner, Herbert Samuel, in 1921 established the Orthodox
Rabbinate.Separate Ashkenazic and
Sephardic Chief Rabbis were created to replace the religious leader in the Ottoman
system.

David Ben Gurion and his secular colleagues did
not believe the ultra-orthodox community would survive the existence of a
modern, pluralistic Jewish State.Their
secular indifference to any religion was sufficient reason for them to leave
all issues of personal status to the religious authorities of all the
recognised confessional communities.

Their intellectual cowardice was arguably their
greatest failure. By outsourcing personal ethics to separate faith communities
they created the foundations for national division and gave succour to all
those people and groups whose rejection of the notion of Jewish independence
was unfazed by history.The millet
system of the Ottoman Empire kept separate
communities in their place even as it gave them the opportunity to govern
themselves. It was always corrupt. The early leaders of the state lacked the
vision to appreciate the damage to national cohesion their repudiation of
responsibility for forging a national identity implanted in the social fabric
of modern Israel.

Institutions can be both for profit and for
society and while one does not preclude the other, institutions are usually
imbued with social purpose.

The Chief Rabbinate does not represent nor has
it ever represented the people of Israel. It represented a minute
sub-set which was continuously looking over its collective shoulder for
affirmation by the most extreme elements of a disjointed constituency.The hostility of its pronouncements on issues
affecting Israeli society inevitably placated no-one and alienated
everyone.Secular inertia and growing
mutual disdain was the impetus behind the religious status quo.Religious authorities were largely ignorant
of secular society with little or no secular education. Ambivalence towards Zionism
contributed nothing towards reconciliation between people of diverse religious
backgrounds.

Islamic radicals living in the West explain the
generous funding they receive from their host state as proof that the contempt
they hold for a demoralized and decadent Western society (as they perceive it)
is God given and therefore justified. In the same way the Rabbinate in Israel showed
its hatred for secular society.

It expected the state to fund a lifestyle that
returned nothing but contempt to the taxpayers that supported them and by this
means it alienated the majority of secular Jews from Judaism even as they
expected all of us to genuflect before them.

One former Chief Rabbi, Ovadia
Yosef, ‘branded non-religious education and the civil justice system as
"corrupting, evil forces."He
decreed that any parent who sends his kids to secular schools is unfit to lead
his congregation in prayer at the synagogue, even if he maintains a religious
lifestyle.’ (Kobi Nahshoni, Ynet 21st August 2012)

He claimed that ‘most’ teachers
were heretics and ‘most’ judges, evil.

The Chief Rabbis should guide the
nation’s morals, provide direction in time of crisis and consolation when the
nation grieves or is in pain. Instead, just
one small example demonstrates the failure of this institution.Following a tragedy in which a dozen school
girls died in a terrible accident, one of the Chief Rabbis blamed the parents.

The rabbinate is perceived as
being a corrupt body that provides jobs for the boys. Its coercive power has not
been diminished even when its ultra orthodox followers state that Judaism is
theirs and no-one else’s.Rabbi
Eliezer Schach forbade his party from joining a coalition government because of
the appointment of an ultra-secular politician as Education Minister (Shulamit
Aloni in 1992).

When we engage with our
adversaries we also humanize them. Democratic politics is concerned with the
freedom to make mistakes. The quality of its success is dependent on its
constructive adversity between alternative paths to the similar visions and different
paths to unrelated visions.It is what
drives innovation and change. Reactionary institutions are terrified of any
change that they cannot control.To
quote Ian Buruma and Avishai Margalit (“Occidentalism – a short history of anti
Westernism”) …“Guardians of tradition, culture and faith see a conspiracy to
destroy what is profound, authentic and spiritual”.

While attending a wedding, the
current front-runner for one of the two posts of Chief Rabbi was physically
assaulted by ultra-orthodox guests.Rav
David Stav is ‘modern orthodox,’ he served in the IDF as a combat solder.

Let us be clear.Most Israelis are secular Jews but most
secular Israelis want a rabbi to conduct their wedding ceremony. The Rabbinate
is a malicious, corrupt and out of control bureaucracy, it is supposed to serve
as a spiritual beacon to the people of Israel.If it has failed the test of a state institution
it is because its employees are employed by a state for which they have no
respect.

It is odd that in the month of Av
the ultra orthodox have performed a modern day version of desecrating the Temple by attacking Jews,
praying at the Western Wall. Add to this, Haredi soldiers being mobbed by
ultra-orthodox Jews for whom service in defense of the state is simply a waste
of time and it becomes clear that the orthodox community is guided by
power and not by ethics.

The contract between Israel and its citizens
is broken. Ben Gurions' heirs are now reaping the consequences for his failure
to bring all Israel’s
minorities into the mainstream.

Guidance from the Chief Rabbinate
has been political, not ethical. If the Institution is to continue to exist,
its membership and not only its leaders must all be graduates of a secular
education system, people who have lived and worked in a world of toil.Only then can they have the character that previous
incumbents have lacked – without love for all their fellow men (and women), and
without grace they are no different to the narrow minded secular bigots that
demand liberation from religious coercion. In fact they are much worse because
in their public visibility they betray the essence of what is positive in
leading a life of religion.